Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey

Short answer: the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is the grave of an unidentified British serviceman of the First World War, buried at the west end of the nave of Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920. It is covered by black Belgian marble, and it is the only gravestone in the Abbey that visitors do not walk on.

Who he is and how he was chosen in 1920

Nobody knows who he is, and that is the point. The idea came from David Railton, an army chaplain who in 1916 saw a grave at Armentières marked “An Unknown British Soldier”. In August 1920 he wrote to the Dean of Westminster, Herbert Ryle, suggesting a burial in the Abbey.

The selection was designed so that no one could know the man’s identity:

1. The bodies of unknown servicemen were exhumed from four battle areas: the Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres.
2. They were placed in four plain coffins in the chapel at St Pol.
3. Brigadier General L. J. Wyatt chose one without knowing where each had come from. The other three were reburied.
4. The coffin crossed from Boulogne to Dover on the destroyer HMS Verdun, escorted by six other destroyers.

On 11 November 1920 the coffin was drawn on a gun carriage to the Cenotaph in Whitehall, where King George V laid a wreath, and then to the Abbey. The King was chief mourner at the burial. The Abbey estimates that 1,250,000 people visited the grave in the week after the funeral.

The inscription and the soil from France

The grave contains soil from France. Wikipedia records soil brought from each of the main battlefields, and the Abbey notes that during the burial the King dropped a handful of French earth onto the coffin.

The first stone was a simple one. In 1921 it was replaced by the present slab of black Belgian marble from a quarry near Namur. The lettering is brass made from melted-down wartime ammunition.

The inscription was written by Dean Ryle. It begins:

BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY OF A BRITISH WARRIOR

and ends with words from 2 Chronicles 24:16: “They buried him among the kings, because he had done good toward God and toward his house.”

Two objects hang nearby:

• The US Congressional Medal of Honor, conferred by General Pershing on 17 October 1921, framed on a pillar near the grave. In return, the American Unknown Soldier was awarded the Victoria Cross on 11 November 1921.
• The Padre’s Flag, the Union Jack Railton used during the war, which covered the coffin in 1920. It now hangs in St George’s Chapel, where it was moved in 1964.

The one grave no one steps on

The Abbey’s floors are full of gravestones, and visitors walk over most of them. This one is the exception. It is the only gravestone in the Abbey that visitors do not walk on, out of respect.

The grave is a focus of national remembrance. In the centenary year, 2020, Queen Elizabeth II made a private visit to lay flowers on it, and a centenary service was held in the Abbey on 11 November 2020.

Royal brides’ bouquets

Royal brides married in the Abbey leave their bouquets on the grave. The custom began in 1923, when Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the Duke of York, later King George VI. She had lost a brother in the war, and she laid her bouquet on the grave.

Royal brides married in the Abbey have done the same since. After the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011, her bouquet was placed on the tomb once the photographs had been taken. The Abbey notes that royal brides married elsewhere have sent bouquets afterwards, Princess Diana among them, and that Queen Camilla’s coronation bouquet was laid there in 2023. More in royal weddings at Westminster Abbey.

Where it is on the visit route

The grave is at the west end of the nave, just inside the Great West Door. Sightseeing visitors enter by the North Entrance and leave by the exit at the West Towers, so on the standard route you reach it in the nave on your way out.

If you attend a service, you come in by the Great West Door and pass close to the grave. Services are free; see Evensong at Westminster Abbey.

For the full visit, the Westminster Abbey entrance ticket costs $43 and includes a multimedia guide. If you want the story of the Unknown Warrior and the graves around it told on the spot, book a guided tour of the Abbey from $100. All options are on our tours page.